Rip and I have been in our "Young Guns" training class - this is the class for up-and-coming fast, young dogs and handlers who care about the details.
This week we did some jump grids and Rip did a great job adjusting to the spacing of the jumps, as well as his timing to bounce through them.
Rip seems much faster than Skye to me, which, of course, I am happy about. As he gets more confident, he is getting faster. It's going to be great to run this boy in an actual trial.
Since I was so busy last week with my parent's visit and our trial preparations and such, I hadn't had much time to train Rip. I need to keep doing more repetitions with his weaves, as in class he skipped a pole one time and he also came out early. I have to watch the pop-outs, and recently I have made sure to not reward immediately after the weaves, but make him do another obstacle after weaving before rewarding.
Other than working on tightening up Rip's wide turns, my other main concern is to focus on contact performance. I've been using the "box" for training a running contact with his DW and AF, and about 75% of the time his performance is spot-on, however... as Mr Rip is getting quite full of himself and confident, I have been getting some leaping of the contacts. His teeter is great and I haven't had any issue there.
Chaos Crew
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wow, 5 in a row!
This past weekend Skye and I attended our club's DOCNA trial. This was our 5th weekend in a row of trialing, and I am looking forward to the next couple of weekends off! My parents were also in town from Massachusetts last week, so it's been rather hectic.
DOCNA is growing in popularity here in Colorado, though we haven't done too much of it other than what our own club offers. I don't find the courses as challenging as in AKC or USDAA, but I do like the different games.
We Q'd all 3 of our Standard runs, 2 out of our 3 Jumpers, our one North American Challenge and some of the games as well.
Our NQ's were due to being over time in the Strategic Gamble and the Traditional Gamble, though we did get the distance challenge. We were also over time in one of the Snakes&Ladders runs due to weave popouts.
Our contacts were great all weekend!
My parents, who are not fluent in agility at all, enjoyed watching me run and the trial environment. They enjoyed the craziness you get to see from the beginner dogs.
All in all, it was a really fun weekend, as the people are great, the judge was very friendly and since the trial was small, the days did not run long.
DOCNA is growing in popularity here in Colorado, though we haven't done too much of it other than what our own club offers. I don't find the courses as challenging as in AKC or USDAA, but I do like the different games.
We Q'd all 3 of our Standard runs, 2 out of our 3 Jumpers, our one North American Challenge and some of the games as well.
Our NQ's were due to being over time in the Strategic Gamble and the Traditional Gamble, though we did get the distance challenge. We were also over time in one of the Snakes&Ladders runs due to weave popouts.
Our contacts were great all weekend!
My parents, who are not fluent in agility at all, enjoyed watching me run and the trial environment. They enjoyed the craziness you get to see from the beginner dogs.
All in all, it was a really fun weekend, as the people are great, the judge was very friendly and since the trial was small, the days did not run long.
Monday, May 18, 2009
USDAA in Pueblo, CO
We had a nice trial in Pueblo last weekend. On Saturday, it was perfect weather for the dogs with clouds and temps in the 40's and 50's (but the people were cold). When its cool out, I tend to get "fast Skye" and he was living up to that this weekend. On Sunday, we started the day with sunshine and a forecasted high of 85, which I know spells trouble for Skye as then we get "its too hot to do agility Skye".
This trial doubles up on the games - 2 Jumpers, 2 Gamblers, 2 Snooker. This makes for a good opportunity to get some of those needed games Q's.
Saturday started off with Jumpers, and my fast Skyeboy got a Q and 1st place. We then ran Snooker and had a nice opening but I was not where I wanted when it came to start the closing and Skye took an offcourse jump behind me.
Next up was Standard and we had another nice run (no contact trouble again!) and we managed a Q with 2nd place. Finally a Standard Q that I have been looking for the last couple trials! This gave us our PD3 title.
We were doing Grand Prix next and Skye was still running nice for me. We Q'd performance Grand Prix and got 1st place! So cool to get that last GP qualifier that we needed for Nationals and have it be a 1st - giving us a bye into round 2 at Regionals.
At this point I had to scramble and leave the trial as my wife and daughter were having their dance recital at 6pm, and with so many dogs at the trial, it was alredy 4pm and we only ran 4 classes. I had to scratch from performance Steelplechase and from Gamblers. Bummer!
Sunday started with Gamblers, and I usually LOVE to start the day with Gamblers, as it lets you run amok and still Q if your dog is having some of the crazies that they can get the first run of the day. When I saw the gamble, I knew we were in trouble - Skye just doesnt have the distance skill to get this particular distance challenge, so I figured we would just run around, do some obstacles and have fun, then I'd send him at the gamble with no expectations.
We ran around, and around, and around - the buzzer never went off signalling the start of the gamble. Ok, so the judge gives me the choice to rerun at the end of the 22" dogs, or just setup and try the gamble - I went for the gamble, and got what I expected (not even close!) and then we left.
We did Standard after Gamblers and it was a nice looking course. We AGAIN got a Standard Q with a nice run - 2nd place too.
Next was Pairs, and I was paired with a guy named Charles with his border collie Ojos. We did a nice job together and got 3rd place with a Q.
At this point, there were no clouds and the sun was baking us. It was definitely mid 80's and hot.
We had Snooker coming up next and there were just 3 reds this time. I had a plan for 3 7's and thought we'd get through it without too much trouble, but in case Skye seemed slow due to the heat, I had a backup plan of 7,7,3. He was running pretty good, the 7pt was a combo of jump/tunnel/jump and we had it. I got the 3 7's, then started the closing. The 5pt obstacles was a set of 6 weaves. Skye hit the entry, weaved 4 poles slowly then came out looking at me like "its way too hot for this dad" so we were done. We would have had it no problem if he just finished those poles! Ugh.
At the end of the day, we had Jumpers again, and even though Skye was running slow and was feeling hot, I figured we'd be fine with just jumps (and a tunnel). I wet him down with the hose they had available, and we ran a decent course, though it was definitely 3 or 4 seconds slower than he is capable of. Still, we Q'd it with 2nd place!
Overall, we got 6/9 Q's.
I am now closing in on my APD (performance ADCH) title. I need 1 more each of Standard, Jumpers, Pairs, Snooker SQ, and I need 3 more Gamblers. In the last 2 trials, I had to scratch from gamblers twice, so that doesnt help!
I dont plan on doing the 3 day USDAA trial on July 4th weekend, as I think I would be dissapointed with Skyes performance in the heat.
Will post video later.
This trial doubles up on the games - 2 Jumpers, 2 Gamblers, 2 Snooker. This makes for a good opportunity to get some of those needed games Q's.
Saturday started off with Jumpers, and my fast Skyeboy got a Q and 1st place. We then ran Snooker and had a nice opening but I was not where I wanted when it came to start the closing and Skye took an offcourse jump behind me.
Next up was Standard and we had another nice run (no contact trouble again!) and we managed a Q with 2nd place. Finally a Standard Q that I have been looking for the last couple trials! This gave us our PD3 title.
We were doing Grand Prix next and Skye was still running nice for me. We Q'd performance Grand Prix and got 1st place! So cool to get that last GP qualifier that we needed for Nationals and have it be a 1st - giving us a bye into round 2 at Regionals.
At this point I had to scramble and leave the trial as my wife and daughter were having their dance recital at 6pm, and with so many dogs at the trial, it was alredy 4pm and we only ran 4 classes. I had to scratch from performance Steelplechase and from Gamblers. Bummer!
Sunday started with Gamblers, and I usually LOVE to start the day with Gamblers, as it lets you run amok and still Q if your dog is having some of the crazies that they can get the first run of the day. When I saw the gamble, I knew we were in trouble - Skye just doesnt have the distance skill to get this particular distance challenge, so I figured we would just run around, do some obstacles and have fun, then I'd send him at the gamble with no expectations.
We ran around, and around, and around - the buzzer never went off signalling the start of the gamble. Ok, so the judge gives me the choice to rerun at the end of the 22" dogs, or just setup and try the gamble - I went for the gamble, and got what I expected (not even close!) and then we left.
We did Standard after Gamblers and it was a nice looking course. We AGAIN got a Standard Q with a nice run - 2nd place too.
Next was Pairs, and I was paired with a guy named Charles with his border collie Ojos. We did a nice job together and got 3rd place with a Q.
At this point, there were no clouds and the sun was baking us. It was definitely mid 80's and hot.
We had Snooker coming up next and there were just 3 reds this time. I had a plan for 3 7's and thought we'd get through it without too much trouble, but in case Skye seemed slow due to the heat, I had a backup plan of 7,7,3. He was running pretty good, the 7pt was a combo of jump/tunnel/jump and we had it. I got the 3 7's, then started the closing. The 5pt obstacles was a set of 6 weaves. Skye hit the entry, weaved 4 poles slowly then came out looking at me like "its way too hot for this dad" so we were done. We would have had it no problem if he just finished those poles! Ugh.
At the end of the day, we had Jumpers again, and even though Skye was running slow and was feeling hot, I figured we'd be fine with just jumps (and a tunnel). I wet him down with the hose they had available, and we ran a decent course, though it was definitely 3 or 4 seconds slower than he is capable of. Still, we Q'd it with 2nd place!
Overall, we got 6/9 Q's.
I am now closing in on my APD (performance ADCH) title. I need 1 more each of Standard, Jumpers, Pairs, Snooker SQ, and I need 3 more Gamblers. In the last 2 trials, I had to scratch from gamblers twice, so that doesnt help!
I dont plan on doing the 3 day USDAA trial on July 4th weekend, as I think I would be dissapointed with Skyes performance in the heat.
Will post video later.
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